I Melt Sugar

Remaining calm when watching things fall apart and helping might not be the best choice.

When
catastrophe explodes
into
something so meaningless
that you'd rather give up than explain,
laugh.
Maybe I will feel your pain.

Even when you're lost,
you're still somewhere.

I...
I swear I've seen this before.
All you wanted
was the golden sun,
but by the time you made it ashore
you were all hands and no arms...
a burning mess of liquid smoke.
You couldn't swim so
you thought it'd be safer to float.
Like a cannonball parallel
you became collateral, and I...
I swear I've seen this before.
I was the carnival
above the norm;
the calm to your overboard.
The burning ship in your brainstorm.
Maybe it's better
to laugh than explain.
Maybe then I'll feel your pain.

         28 lines, "I Melt Sugar"  from "Also Mutants" .

Best Medium-Length Poem, Free Verse